Category: Semester

 Natalie Cincotta , BMC 26′

Quaker Collection and
Education Templates

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Arch Street Meeting House

Field Supervisor: Jennifer Lee Gray

Praxis Poster:

HART_NatalieCincotta_Revised

 

Further Context:

Arch Street Meeting House was a chance find from searching for praxis internship opportunities online, and I was incredibly fortunate to work for them for my junior spring semester. I’ve always had a deep interest in the work that goes into maintaining a historic property museum, and I’m overjoyed to have had the opportunity to gain such a wonderful experience. Arch Street Meeting House is a historic Quaker meeting house that functions as a museum, rental space, and meeting place for an active Quaker congregation. I worked there as an intern through Arch Street Preservation Trust, an organization created to preserve and create museum spaces in the building.

I worked on two main projects in my time at ASMH. My first task included researching and cataloging a collection of historical objects that belong to a Quaker community member from New Jersey. The collection of over 140 objects contained clothing, keepsakes, and letters, which ranged in date from 1830 to 1930. As I took time photographing each piece of clothing, written correspondence, shoe, or household object, I became enraptured with this history puzzle, connecting different generations of one family into a complete and detailed document. This project taught me a lot, including how to delve into Quaker databases, navigate Ancestry.com, and strengthen my transcription skills with old letters and notes. I hope that my work sheds some light on the objects and their history and brings some happiness to the women who brought them into ASMH looking for some family stories.

My second project focused on the education side of museum work. I created a hands-on worksheet activity for kids to learn more about museums! My activity involved rolling a set of giant dice to determine a specific kind of museum that visitors could then draw and design on paper. I gave examples of what ASMH was with each one, and I even had a little boy roll a perfect set of dice to describe ASMH! It is a small, urban, historical property museum that does not collect new items for its archives and focuses on religious history. I found my experience in creating educational materials to be overwhelming at times, especially since I had never attempted that kind of work before. While I had ups and downs throughout the process, both my supervisor and other staff members helped me constantly, from start to finish. I loved learning what things worked and what things I need to rework for the next time.

In my entire time at ASMH, my favorite part was the people I met, from research-minded visitors to the lovely museum staff and docent volunteers. I loved every conversation I was able to have about museums, Quakers, and the historic building itself. Throughout this experience, I have not only increased my research and activity-building skills but also my understanding of how small museums work day to day, and even month to month.  I hope to continue interning at ASMH this coming summer and assist with the refurbishing of their exhibition space, which has plans to be revealed next year.  If you’re ever in the Old City area and want to stop by a wonderful museum with an amazing history, stop by Arch Street Meeting House; you may find me there!

Eli Cole, BMC 25′

Library Internship: Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Field Supervisor: Anthony DiGiovann

Praxis Poster:

HART_EliCole_REVISED

 

Further Context:

For my Museum Studies Fieldwork course, I had the opportunity to work at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in their library department, learning about several different aspects of the work involved in running a special collections library. I worked with Anthony DiGiovanni, the Director of Cataloging Services at the Historical Society, to catalog, page, and reshelve books, assist with front-facing work at the reference desk, and work on larger reorganizing and inventorying projects in the library stacks. 

Over the course of this experience, I learned how to use different library classification systems– the Historical Society uses several, including the Dewey Decimal System, Library of Congress classification system, and their own proprietary system–and navigate the library’s vaults to find resources. I also learned how to use MARC records to catalog a book and update it in the library’s holdings. This involved both adding it to the Historical Society’s system and exporting it to UPenn’s online catalog, which hosts HSP’s catalog data and makes it available to the public. While shadowing Anthony at the reference desk, I learned about the kinds of questions patrons often ask when they come in to do research, and what resources– online databases, research guides, HSP’s catalog– I could point them towards to help them find what they were looking for. 

One of the bigger projects I was involved with during this experience was moving a collection of books back into the Historical Society’s stacks. These books were some of HSP’s oldest collections, with books dating back to the 1500s, and had previously been held at the special collections library next door, the Library Company of Philadelphia, as part of a longstanding agreement. Because the terms of the agreement had recently changed, this collection is now being brought back into the Historical Society’s stacks. I helped with the move, and with shifting and reorganizing books on some of the library shelves to make space for the returning collection. As we brought the books back, I helped inventory them, checking them against both the Library Company and the Historical Society’s catalogs to make sure they were properly classified and accounted for. There were frequent complications, so this project required a lot of time and attention to detail. 

This experience has given me a greater understanding and appreciation of all the different kinds of library work and the ways they connect to each other. I feel like I have learned a lot about all the work that goes into running a special collections library, and this experience has made me excited to learn more about library and archival work in the future. 

Ella Evans, BMC 25′

Archival Inventorying at the Fabric Workshop and Museum

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Fabric Workshop and Museum

Field Supervisor: Justin Hall

Praxis Poster:

HART_EllaEvans_FWMPoster

 

Further Context:

This past semester, I had the wonderful opportunity to intern with the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) in their museum archives. Marion ‘Kippy’ Boulton Stroud founded the workshop in 1977, and the institution has collaborated with artists to create contemporary art in a variety of media ever since. The workshop pushes artists to move outside of their comfort zones or preferred media and embrace innovation and possibility. From its onset, the FWM has collected the contemporary art produced during its artist-in-residence collaborations, which means that they have a robust and multifaceted collection. I focused on several different projects during my internship which were geared towards inventorying and cataloguing parts of the collection in order to increase public accessibility. 

My main project examined the accessioned object records in CollectionSpace, FWM’s online records management software. My role was to evaluate the presence and quality of the images in the over 1100 objects accessioned into the FWM’s permanent collection and create an inventory spreadsheet. This spreadsheet will be used in the future to ensure that all of the accessioned objects in the collection have high-quality photographs, so that each object’s information can be uploaded to FWM’s public browser site. This future site will assist researchers and the public in learning about the diverse collection of art at the museum. During my internship, my supervisor used the spreadsheet to locate items of clothing in the collection that had low-quality or absent photos and then scheduled photography sessions with the staff photographer to begin the process of building the index of website-worthy photos. I assisted with arranging t-shirts, robes, and dresses during these photography sessions, and it was so cool to be hands-on with the artwork. 

Besides the photo inventory project, I worked to catalogue the materials in several different Artist Boxes in the FWM’s collection. These Artist Boxes contained process materials from the stay of contemporary artists during their Artist-in-Residences at the FWM. Through my cataloguing, I created a visual guide of the materials in the Artist Boxes for future use by researchers. This project let me hone my cataloguing skills and I gained practice describing collection objects and formatting museum documents. 

Additionally, the FWM attended the IFPDA print fair in New York City in March. Prior to the fair, I assisted my supervisor with conducting condition reports of objects, small conservation measures for objects, and packing objects for shipment to New York. I learned important art handling skills from my supervisor during this experience, understanding the intricacies of bubble wrap and frame tape. 

Reflecting on my diverse experiences at the FWM, I learned so much about the role of archives and registrars within small museum institutions. This experience solidified my desire to pursue a role in museum archives upon graduation. Ultimately, I am so grateful to all the FWM staff to being so supportive through my internship. I’m excited to see the new projects that the FWM decides to embark on! 

Olivia Herman, BMC 26′

Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History

Field Supervisor: Claire Pingel

Praxis Poster:

HART_OliviaHerman_REVISED

 

Further Context:

For my museum studies praxis, I worked at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History which is located in Independence Mall in downtown Philadelphia. The museum celebrates the history of Jews in America dating back to the 17th century. The museum’s goal is to provide a place where American Jews and people of all backgrounds can learn about the diversity of the American Jewish experience and Jews’s role in American history. The museum has three main exhibition floors each focusing on a different chunk of time: 1654-1880, 1880-1945, and 1945- today (or 2006), and one more floor with a focus on prominent Jews in American history.  

I worked specifically in the collections and registration department where I completed a variety of different tasks. I learned how and did exhibit walkthroughs, where I made sure everything in the exhibit was clean, where it was supposed to be, and that all the humidity and temperature-controlled cases were at the correct level. I also did a lot of work for their special exhibition “The First Salute” which is opening in April of next year for the 250th anniversary of America. I helped out with artifact research, finding loan information, organization of potential artifacts, and adding loans to the museum’s online database. I also helped out with the museum’s collaboration with a local high school which are doing a small temporary exhibit at the museum as well as an online exhibit. I’ve also helped with processing loan returns and final condition checks. I’ve conducted research also on a potential future exhibit based on something in the museum’s collection.  

During my time at the Weitzman, I have learned also about the behind the scenes of a museum and all that goes into museum work. I’ve gained a variety of new skills such as working with a museum database and gaining proficiency with Excel. I also understand more about how museum loans work and how much planning needs to go into them months before an exhibit will open. I also better understand the process behind creating a new exhibit and how many people both internal and external are involved as well as what each role in the process entails. 

Delaney Kenney, HC 25′

The Franklin Institute: Youth Programs

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: The Franklin Institute

Field Supervisor: Carly Netting

Praxis Poster:

HART_DELANEYKENNEY_REVISED

 

Further Context:

This spring, I had the pleasure of working at The Franklin Institute (TFI), Philadelphia’s science and technology museum. TFI was founded in 1824 by Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William H. Keating in order to promote the love of science and technology through experiential, hands-on learning. During my time, I worked primarily with the Youth Programs team, but I also had the amazing opportunity to speak with a wide range of TFI professionals. I learned more about how science museums function as a collaborative space dedicated to inspiring the scientist in us all. 

The Franklin Institute has three main youth programs that I engaged with: PACTS (Partnership for Achieving Careers in Technology and Science), STEM Scholars, and Franklin Ambassadors. PACTS is a program that serves 60 middle school students by organizing biweekly scientific workshops. I assisted with the Science Investigators sector of this program in which the students get to learn about different areas of science in every workshop. The coolest workshop I assisted with was helping students to build a robotic arm!  

STEM Scholars serves high school students in weekly workshops conducted by partner organizations, such as the University of Pennsylvania and Saint Joseph’s University. Students are split by grade and each grade comes into the Museum once a week for their designated workshop. I engaged with the sophomore class and got the opportunity to both mentor students and assist professional researchers with the implementation of their programming. My favorite workshop was measuring the neuronal response of venus fly traps!  

I spent the majority of my time with the Franklin Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are a high school leadership cohort who do everything from mentoring younger students to being extra hands for museum events to attending weekly career and college readiness seminars. I loved getting to forge close relationships with a number of Ambassadors and see them grow throughout the semester both personally as well as in their leadership roles! My main projects with the Ambassadors were to create a seminar for their weekly series and to organize a laboratory field trip for them. My seminar was part of their career and college readiness series and focused on tips and tricks for resume-building. The lab visit I arranged was to my own thesis laboratory at Bryn Mawr! I brought the Ambassadors into my lab and exposed them to both electroencephalography (EEG) technology and virtual reality. I ran them as mock-participants for my thesis study, which revolves around investigating the neural correlates of deception utilizing virtual reality, and also taught them how to be study administrators themselves. It was such a fun experience to see them become neuroscience researchers for the day!  

My main project as an intern was to develop an original community outreach project. I was given the task of designing a set of activities related to a scientific topic of my choice that had to engage all ages for anywhere from 15 seconds to 15 minutes. I chose to create a project based around the neuroscience behind illusions, to function as an extension of TFI’s optical illusions exhibit. I collaborated with both the Design and Curriculum Development teams to produce a set of 8 activities with corresponding scientific explanation cards. It was such an interesting experience to see the process through which multiple different departments work together to create a project. I presented my activities alongside Ambassadors at Smith Playground’s Play-a-Palooza, and it was such a rewarding experience to see community members enjoy them so much! My project will serve as TFI’s outreach program for the next year.  

Reflecting on my time at TFI, I learned so much about how science museums function as well as the ways in which museums leverage their resources to best serve their communities. This experience has greatly prepared me for my post-graduation position as a social impact fellow at the Museum of Science in Boston. I am so grateful for my mentors as well as my students for welcoming me into TFI and helping me develop my skills as a science museum educator! 

Carey Klopfenstein, BMC ’26

Work with the P.A. Browne Collection at The Academy of Natural Sciences

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Field Supervisor: Jessica Lydon

Praxis Poster:

HART_Carey_Klopfenstein_Final

 

Further Context:

My dad snatched away the lollipop two-year-old me was licking gleefully when he realized it contained a scorpion at its center. He’d bought me the lollipop at the gift shop on the way out of one of our many visits to the Academy of Natural Science during my childhood. My earliest memories of learning to love museums take place at the Academy, like learning about Prehistory and doing mock Paleontological digs.  

I never expected I would be returning to the Academy as an intern after all these years. In high school, I became passionate about social justice issues related to museums, in particular the repatriation of the remains of Indigenous Peoples and the representation of Indigenous peoples in museums. I chose Bryn Mawr College in part because of its Museum Studies program, and I declared an Anthropology major to fit with my career goal of working in a museum. Because of my childhood experience, I associated the Academy with dinosaurs and bugs rather than Anthropology. When Tiffany Stahl, the associate director for Praxis, suggested that I look into interning at the Academy for my Praxis internship, I didn’t expect to find any positions related to the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in museums. 

To my surprise, the Academy had the perfect position for me. Despite no longer having any exhibits related to Anthropology, the Academy still has a collection from the nineteenth century that contains specimens of human hair collected by the scientist Peter Arrell Browne. The Bureau of Indian Affairs had requested a list of the groups of people whose hair was included in Browne’s collection to whom the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) apply. I compiled a list of all the terms that Browne used for Indigenous peoples in the United States. I also researched the terms that Browne used to find out what terms the descendants of the people whom these specimens were taken from prefer to be referred to in the modern day.  

From this updated information, I created a data dictionary for the Academy. At the BIA’s request, I also calculated the number of hair samples and people that corresponded with each legacy term. I identified the date when each specimen was collected, as well as the contact information for the relevant federally recognized tribes and entities for each specimen, to enable the Academy to contact the descendants of the people the samples were taken from. 

I also did research in the Academy’s archives to collect information about the life of Peter Arrell Browne, and also to find further information for other projects I have been working on. Peter Arrell Browne was a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences. He was a geologist who also studied animal and human hair. He was deeply racist, and he used his studies of human hair to support his argument that humans fall into three separate species. While views like this are frequently excused as products of their time, I’d like to note that this view was not universal in Browne’s day, and many of the academics that Browne argued against did not share it. Browne also worked with other prominent scientific racists of the time, such as Samuel G. Morton. Browne’s correspondence also revealed racism and cruelty on a personal level. 

I found my experience interning at the Academy to be extremely valuable.  It gave me crucial additional experience with archival research. I also found it fulfilling to be doing work that makes a positive change in an area I care deeply about. My motivation for working in museums in my career is to try to remedy the racial injustices that museums have perpetuated.I’m grateful for the opportunity to have learned through my experience and, through one small step in what will be a long process, make a positive impact.

Pascale Lowell, BMC 26′

Museum Studies Fieldwork: Woodmere Art Museum

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Woodmere Art Museum 

Field Supervisor: Amy Gillette

Praxis Poster:

HART_PascaleLowell_Revised

 

Further Context:

I’ve had such an incredible experience at the Woodmere Art Museum this semester. During my time at Bryn Mawr, I’ve really come to love Philadelphia, and as a center for display of local Philadelphia artists I learned so much about the scene during my time working with Woodmere. I was supervised by their curator, Amy Gillette, with two other students from Bryn Mawr. Woodmere is opening a new building in October of 2025 (Maguire Hall), and as such needed to catalogue the labels that were usable, and where pieces would need more information. I spent the first month or two going through the catalogue and marking off what was complete and what was not. I enjoyed the low-pressure achievement aspect of this, where accomplishments were being made without my having to take very many risks or challenge myself, which was a comfortable place to start, and helped me to get familiar with the format and expectations for museum labels. I did struggle, however, with the repetitive nature of the task, and by the time we finished I was certainly ready to work on something new. 

From there I moved on to writing. My first project was a biography, which intimidated me less than the labels. For that, what was required was to find out the facts about the artist available online. To provide art interpretation seemed much easier to mess up. I was concerned by the fact that a label possesses a kind of appeal to authority and therefore could be taken by the public as the ‘be all end all’ of analyzing a specific piece. To avoid worrying about this for a bit I started with a bio instead. What I had hoped would be a simpler task turned out to be much more difficult, as I was faced with the need to cram the entirety of a person’s life into only one or two short paragraphs. I completed it, relying heavily on the artist’s own biography found on their website. From there I wanted to try something new, so I delved into label writing. 

Woodmere holds quite the collection of works from talented muralist Violet Oakley, whose pieces I had really loved viewing when I visited Woodmere. I opted to start with her works, not only because I enjoyed her style but because I identified with her. She was a Bryn Mawr graduate, and very likely a queer woman who spent her life living with Edith Emerson, an artist who dedicated her life after Oakley’s death to preserving her memory. She served as Woodmere’s director, contributing greatly to their extensive collection of both her and Oakley’s works, spurring the museum to focus not only on Philadelphia artists but women as well. Part of what is going to be displayed in the new building are several drafts created by Oakley for a boy’s school of various religious scenes. I loved the colors of her study for Young David in his fight against goliath and found it much simpler to provide interpretation when I could compare between the study and the final mural. As my first attempt I struggled to condense what I wanted to accomplish into something as short as it needed to be. I continued on from there with several more of Oakley’s studies, which served as such a great introduction to label writing. 

When I moved on from that group my largest problem became decision paralysis. I spent way too much of my time scrolling through the endless document attempting to select pieces to write about I felt confident enough in, with enough material on the internet that I could base my interpretation on something solid. I completed a few labels this way but struggled with how long each one took me. In a meeting with the publicity team Amy mentioned offhandedly that “labels aren’t kidneys” which I tried to keep in mind when writing from that point on. I got less precious about my interpretation and tried to have faith that art was powerful enough to convey what it needed to. My labels served as a guide, but I also needed to trust the visitor to know that art is so deeply subjective. 

With this in mind I began to be drawn to the more abstract pieces of the collection. I loved learning about how interconnected the art scene in Philadelphia was and is, especially in the abstract art movement. So many of Woodmere’s artists learned from Arthur B. Carles, a talented portraitist who turned towards abstraction as he moved through his career. It was fascinating to look at all these pieces made by a host of different artists, each so wildly different but all citing Carles as an incredible teacher of theirs. His focus on color as a basis for composition serves as such a strong foundation for abstract art, and I loved being able to look at so many pieces through that lens.  

I’m so grateful to have gotten to learn so much at Woodmere this semester. Amy worked so hard to make sure we all got the most out of the experience, arranging meetings with different teams to talk about varying career paths, and meeting with us in person frequently. I plan to continue working with them on labels this summer, and I’m so glad to get to keep interacting with such amazing art. My writing skills have developed, and I’m proud of my ability to say what I want efficiently. It’s also been such an incredible experience as a fine arts major, as nothing is better for making art than looking at lots and lots and lots of art. I’ve gained so much knowledge about art structures and gotten to hear about the lives of so many artists, each with their own paths. As someone who found their way to making art towards the end of high school it was so comforting to see how many talented people found a love for creating late in life. Thank you so much to Bryn Mawr and to Woodmere for an absolutely amazing semester! 

Claire Mehta Scott, BMC 25′

The Lifecycle of an Artist in Residence at the Fabric Workshop and Museum

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Fabric Workshop and Museum 

Field Supervisor: Judson Browning

Praxis Poster:

HART_MEHTASCOTTPRAXIS_RevisedForPrint-compressed

 

Further Context:

This past semester I was lucky enough to intern at the Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) with the Exhibitions Manager, Judson Browning. FWM is a contemporary art institution founded in 1977 with the express purpose of collaborating with Artists-in-Residence, as well as their high school and adult apprentices, to “reveal new possibilities.” This is done through encouraging experimentation with unfamiliar materials and modes of production. The workshop specializes in screen printing fabric and producing yardage. Additionally, FWM is free to the public and hosts Artist-in-Residence as well as high school and adult apprentices.

During my time at the workshop, I undertook several projects, with my main focus being creating an AIR (Artist-In-Residence) & Exhibition Standard Operating Procedure. This living document exists with the express purpose of streamlining hosting an Artist-In-Residence, outlining all the possible outcomes that emerge from this collaboration while avoiding language that feels limiting or expectant about what the end goal might be. This involved breaking down residencies into potential “phases,” and further delineating each possibility into sub-phases, i.e. renaming Phase 3 (previously “exhibition”) to “completion” which contains 3a: “exhibition,” but does not necessitate it. Additionally, new phases emerged within this framework which include Phase 4: “performance,” in the case of an AIR who is interested in pursuing a post-exhibition project, and Phase 0: “orientation” which encourages an AIR to have face time with each department within FWM at the onset of the residency.

To consider every perspective in creating the SOP, I interviewed various department heads within the workshop/museum. I worked to place everyone’s needs and deadlines within an exhibition timeline, which will hopefully prompt further cross-departmental communication.

Before I began working on the AIR & Exhibition SOP, I spent the first few months of my internship getting acquainted with the unique institution.  I was working within and building relationships that would further serve me in the interview process and throughout my time at FWM. While running around with my supervisors addressing projects on a need-by-need basis, such as doing upkeep and maintenance on the current exhibition, Softcover, or researching forthcoming AIRs (like Cherry Moki and Lisa Alvarado), I also worked on two other written documents, namely, the Exhibition Checklist for Softcover and an AIR Welcome Packet. An exhibition checklist is a list of everything that is in a show and the materials and dimensions of each piece. The checklist I created for Softcover will be used when traveling the show. The AIR Welcome Packet is a document that contains everything you might want a friend visiting Philly to know. In addition to introducing the institution, it includes a list of grocery stores, my restaurant recommendations, a guide to Reading Terminal Market, museums, and a SEPTA guide.

I am so so glad for this experience and all the people who worked so hard to make it as enjoyable and educational as it was! I have gathered so many new skills and built so many incredible relationships during my time at FWM. I’m leaving my internship feeling excited for the next time I can come and visit my friends in the offices upstairs.

Francis Perrigo, BMC 26’ 

Museum Studies Fieldwork: Harriton House

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Harriton House 

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter 

Praxis Poster:

HART_FrancisPerrigo_Poster

 

Further Context:

As part of my praxis course, I interned at Harriton House, a local historical site once owned by Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress. During my time there, I completed a range of archival projects that deepened my understanding of historical preservation and organizational recordkeeping. I organized and archived the records of Nancy Walker, a former president of the Harriton Association, as well as materials from two related groups: the Music Study Club and the Lower Merion Society for the Detection and Prosecution of Horse Thieves and the Recovery of Stolen Horses. I also transcribed handwritten correspondence from Paul Maier, another past association president, which offered insights into collection management and the vast number of uncatalogued materials that Harriton holds. In addition, I worked with Harriton’s book collection, helping to inventory and preserve its holdings. My work took place both in person and remotely, depending on the nature of each project, and I often juggled multiple tasks simultaneously. Beyond archival work, I had the chance to care for Harriton’s animals and interact with visitors.  

During my internship, I spent most of my time in the Archive Room, which is located in Harriton House. It was slow and meticulous work, but it taught me a lot. I learned quickly that attention to detail and focus are incredibly important, and you need to have a good idea of your organization system going in. Even little choices like how to group things or what to label a folder can make a big difference in your final product. As I sorted through the bins and file cabinets, I started to get a feel for how collections come together. I got better at recognizing different types of letters based on typeface and paper, and I could recognize different handwriting such as Nancy Walker’s. It was quiet and time-consuming work, but it made me realize how important backstage effort is when running a historic house.   

Without the efforts of archivists, many important documents like original blueprints or association bulletins could be overlooked during research. I also learned some basic preservation skills such as flattening, removing paper clips and paper pins, and sorting documents into acid-free folders and archival boxes. It was very illuminating to learn just how much work needs to go into preserving documents, even modern ones. I realized that my ability to focus is a valuable asset that I hadn’t previously considered. I also got better at trusting my judgment, staying organized, and managing multiple projects. It increased my already high regard for archival work and all the effort that goes into archival departments, no matter how large or small they are.

Lily Petteway, BMC 25′

Educational Research and
Interpretation at Harriton House

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Harriton House 

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter 

Praxis Poster:

HART_LilyPetteway_Revised

 

Further Context:

My work at Harriton this semester was detail-oriented and research-focused, contributing to the house’s current goal of reinterpretation for its various visitors. Historical homes are often small, intimate spaces, and Harriton certainly falls into these categories. Located just a few minutes from Bryn Mawr’s campus, Harriton House has been standing since 1704 and is best known as the residence of Charles Thomson, Secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789. Harriton highlights the critical role that local histories play in shaping historical engagement, interest, and education. 

My work centered upon Hannah Harrison Thomson, the inheritor of the Harriton property and Charles Thomson’s wife. After his political career that took Hannah from city to city, Thomson decided to retire the two to Harriton. My goal was to find as much information on Hannah as possible, whether that be through memorandum books or epistolary commentary on Charles’ political affairs. This had me not just digging through Harriton’s archives, but also visiting Philadelphia-based institutions like the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, and the Independence National Historical Park Library. I sifted through and transcribed any letter I could find that was even tangentially related to Hannah, often having to read between the lines given how much historical commentary is focused on Charles instead. This was quiet, independent work but with a scavenger-hunt edge. Hannah’s letters were frequently witty, irreverent, and full of personality, which made highlighting her story at Harriton an exciting undertaking. 

Towards the end of the semester, I began compiling a Girl Scouts “Playing the Past” activity curriculum for girls aged 9-11 visiting Harriton. This ended up being more challenging than I had imagined as I had to think about how I wanted to interpret and synthesize my research for a younger audience. For the badge, girls visit a historical site and step into the shoes of a woman related to the site. I wanted to include a mix of activities that showed the potential limitations for late-eighteenth-century women but also show how women could still carve out spheres of influence for themselves; after all, Hannah’s life experience was so variant given her sudden shift out of the urban, social sphere into the homestead setting of Harriton. Letter/diary writing, mock portrait making, and exploring the house to locate Hannah’s influences were some activities I incorporated. 

Something I came to appreciate throughout my time at Harriton was how community-oriented the site is. The house is very receptive to outside visitors, nearby residents, volunteers, donors, and members that I frequently got to interact with. Harriton has become a staple of the surrounding community and serves not only to preserve that community’s past, but also consider its future. By hosting numerous events that celebrate Lower Merion’s history, running children’s programs, and even simply caring for the goats so beloved by visitors, Harriton fosters engagement that keeps local stories alive.